Image Credit: Contributed/sensibleguncontrol.com
October 13, 2015 - 10:19 AM
“EVERY SOLUTION STARTS WITH A SERIOUS CONVERSATION”
VERNON – A pair of Rotarians from Vernon have launched a website and petition in an effort to get our American neighbours to address the issue of gun violence.
Don Thompson and Bonnie Derry say it’s an issue they both feel very strongly about. The couple spend five months of the year in the U.S. and says as Rotarians, they want to fulfill their promise of “being a gift to the world.”
Thompson, who is American and has permanent residency status in Canada, says the website sensibleguncontrol.com, and the petition it is promoting, came about from a feeling of frustration — and embarrassment.
He points out there is nearly one mass shooting in America every day and Canadians “just don’t get it.”
While watching the news coverage they see Americans say the same things over and over.
“It’s sad. It’s tragic. Things like this don’t happen here,” Thompson says. “It’s the same script over and over, like Groundhog Day.”
Derry, CEO of Endymion Holdings Ltd. and owner of this news site, thinks it’s time for an intervention.
“You have to wonder if Americans might take a more serious look if you’ve got a neighbour saying, ‘we care about you guys,’” she says.
The petition Canadians are being asked to sign, which Thompson and Derry plan to deliver to the U.S. Congress before the next general election on Nov. 8, 2016, boldly states:
“America needs sensible gun control. No more rhetoric deflecting the issue of killing people with guns. No acceptance of gun deaths because we live in a free democracy. No more sadness in front of television news cameras every day as the only response to senseless gun control. No more allowing special interests to control America. We want answers…solutions…sensible gun control…NOW!”
Thompson, who served in the U.S. Air Force and has nothing against hunting, says they aren’t proposing the government confiscate the over 270 million guns in the U.S. Sensible control of the buying and selling for firearms is the goal.
He says it comes down to dialogue — getting people talking.
“Every solution starts with conversation, and a serious conversation.”
For more information about the initiative and to check out the petition go to sensibleguncontrol.com.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015